


The Banker or the Ban? Goblin Professions in Magical Europe

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Goblins, In-Universe Meta, In-Universe Text, Non-Human Rights, Real World Parallels, Wizarding Books, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 01:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: It is a well known fact that the best bankers of magical Europe are the goblins...A look at the history of goblin rights, goblin oppression, and goblin culture.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 10
Collections: Worldbuilding Exchange 2021





	The Banker or the Ban? Goblin Professions in Magical Europe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Doreling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doreling/gifts).



> Many thanks to the wonderful [Niamh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft), [Chuck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chuck_Johannsen) and waveringclouds for looking this over for me.

_ The Banker or the Ban? Goblin Professions in Magical Europe _

by Herschel Cobbold & Kleggi Pearltooth

It is a well known fact that the best bankers of magical Europe are the goblins. Though they come in many groups, many clans and many sects, they are uniformly considered excellent with numbers, coin, and metalwork in general. Despite this, the founders of the various European banks are decidedly distinct - the French Lutins were originally a specific clan from Normandy who gained a foothold in trade by way of their skill with horses while the Germanic Kobolds are a loose coalition of goblin clans from across the region who allied together in order to leverage greater bargaining power. Meanwhile the British Gringott was a metalworker of Spanish descent whose trading network allowed him to pull together the majority of the (admittedly small) British goblin community in order to found Gringotts Bank. Goblin skills vary considerably with clan and personal preference from the  _ kallikantzaros _ mercenaries of Greece, the  _ tomtenisse _ farmers and agricultural labourers of Scandinavia, to the German  _ kobold _ miners and metalworkers, for whom the modern coalition is named. Though many have historically taken part in mining, it was and is hardly the whole of their cultural interests.

However, as one might be able to already tell: banking has not historically been the first thing on every goblin’s mind.

Though the Normandy Lutins lead the charge for French goblins in the modern day, they much preferred animal handling to mining and metalwork, only rising to prominence by virtue of their trade connections. The Germanic Kobolds were a vast collection of clans with various and sundry interests - many of which have now been sadly lost to time - who have banded together under the  _ kobold _ banner only out of necessity. The only significant exception might be the famed Gringott himself. Though the founder of Gringotts Bank had a great interest in metalwork and the trade thereof, it was only by way of his European connections that he was prepared for the wave of wizarding laws spreading across Europe in the 1460s and only by way of his British trade network that he managed to gather the small goblin population of the British Isles into one collective in time.

Wizards, you see, had not been terribly fond of goblin presence in a number of markets ( _ The Place of the Lesser Races, _ Bulstrode, J., 1442, Harridan Press). The French Lutins were skilled equestrians, breeding, breaking and working horses throughout Normandy from as early as the 5th Century BCE. Certain members of the Kobold coalition were forest goblins, with footholds in the herb trade so essential to our apothecaries, while others were famed craftsmen. British goblins certainly mined (though not without frequent conflict with the Welsh mountain dwarves) but they also helped magical artificers in developing new tools. It was felt - some members of the Wizengamot were recorded as saying - that goblins were encroaching on wizarding jobs.

This was not unique to Britain: as aforementioned, France and Germany went through this phenomenon as well, as did much of the rest of Europe. Christianity was well-spread by this time, and paganism ever-fading; the majority of magical Europe attended church like anyone else… and believed that while  _ they _ were made in the image of God, goblins were not ( _ The Forme of Manne, _ Abbott, A., 1296, St. Wulfric’s Abbey). 

What right, therefore, did goblins have to wizardly jobs? What right did they have to homes in wizardly neighbourhoods, or even, Aubrey Rosier argued, in one notable Wizengamot speech, to wizardly wands? A wand was a sign of civilisation - surely mere beasts, so often drubbing in dirt and digging in mines, should not be permitted such tools?

Thus it was that the original set of the three great laws were passed by the Wizengamot in 1469, variants of which were held in common throughout the many of the magical communities of Europe, even to the present day:

First, no goblin may be held on the same standing as a wizard. The freedoms and rights of wizards do not apply to goblins - but that has not stopped wizards from restricting what rights goblins do have.

Secondly, no goblin may bear a wand. As an ungodly race - more recently deemed a  _ childlike _ one - they must prove themselves right, godly and able to bear a wand before any such change may be made to the laws.

Thirdly, given goblins’ great skill in mining and metalwork they were deemed to have been clearly crafted by God for that purpose. No goblin was permitted to hold a profession outside of those domains: mining, metalwork and the trade thereof. 

Thus it was by force, not by choice, that goblins were forced into the roles they are commonly known to fill today.

These laws have all been challenged and even changed at various points. In south-western Europe the most notable concession granted to goblins was the one gained by Gringott himself in 1474, permitting him to establish his bank. Coins were metal and metalwork after all, and as goblins were those with the skill to both mint and police currency, they were thus the ones given trust to do so. Farther north the  _ tomtenisse _ of Scandinavia waged a considerable war of attrition against local wizards, forcing recognition of their varied skills and the fact they quite simply  _ would not _ be forced into one job, while the Germanic  _ kobold _ clan struck alliances with as many clans as they could, causing trouble in any number of markets. Though the Kobold Coalition was ultimately limited by law, their capabilities have never been forgotten and the laws regarding goblins in the area have been frequently challenged (notably  _ Scholz v. Eisenspeer _ , 1562, and  _ Maier v. Griffhaken, _ 1782).

These laws have also been encroached upon by wizards themselves: despite treaties supposedly assuring goblin control of banking - often the direct result of Ministerial meddling and the consequent goblin rebellions - wizards have nonetheless involved themselves uninvited. During the period between 1500-1656 Gringotts Bank was overseen by a board of Wizengamot members, while the Kobold Coalition of Germany was forced to accept the intervention of the German Ministry of Magic in 1933, with the director and all public-facing roles associated with it replaced by wizards until Grindelwald’s defeat in 1945. Most recently of all, in 2011, the French Ministry of Magic forbade goblins from bearing sigils of their personal clans in public and from wearing full armour in part of their sweeping changes regarding the rights of non-human magical beings; notably these laws forbade full-blood veela from covering their faces in public, despite it being a long-standing practice to limit the effects of their magical appeal.

As one might suspect, this has rarely gone well. Goblin rebellions are a frequent feature of Magical History - and given everything they have been put through, it is something any compassionate scholar might well understand, even considering the consequent bloodshed touted by Pureblood Supremacists as reasons that goblins should be denied the rights they have consistently fought for. These historical rebellions show a degree of desperation that wizards have historically refused to recognise, most notably in the 1752 British Rebellion where British goblins formed an alliance with local werewolves to push for rights for both - to this day, goblins regularly ignore laws restricting werewolf banking rights throughout all of Europe. 

Gorlog Goldentongue was one of the most generous activists for goblin rights when he argued for the right of goblins to bear wands in 1756, displaying a clear understanding of the fear and hate that drove - and still drives - goblin oppression. His speech in Paris two years later showed similar understanding - as well as a fierce willingness to utilise that fear, if that was what it took. Goblins, wizards ought be reminded, have been thus oppressed for centuries. Though the occasional wizard has spoken on behalf of or in favour of goblins - most notable in recent years would be Magizoologist Newt Scamander, who has argued consistently for the rights of all sapient magical creatures, regardless of “Being” status - allies have been few and far between, and rarely consistent enough to engender trust. If wixes could understand - and willingly fought for - the recognition of the rights of witches and of wixes of colour then why could they not so consistently fight for the rights of goblins?

Indeed, it has been most galling for goblins around the world. Where muggle women and people of colour in Europe have regularly struggled for the same recognition as their white and male peers many of these struggles have been far reduced in magical communities. When magic may be displayed by anyone, regardless of gender, race or background, and when such expression does not even need a wand to have significant effect, attempts to oppress were often severely limited - and regularly fought back against. While the magical communities of Europe initially partook of the slave trade as readily as their muggle counterparts, magical slaves were rapidly freed for fear of what they might do kept imprisoned. As accidental magic and wandless magic alike cannot be easily contained or predicted, the risk to the Statute was deemed too great; combined with the outrage of magical rulers across Africa, it was deemed politic to ban the practice entirely ( _ The Rights of Every Wizard: On the Ambominable Practice of Slavery _ , Shacklebolt, M, 1787, Dust & Mildewe Publishers;  _ A History of Inter-Racial Injustice in Magical Britain, _ Chang, C., Thomas, D, 2002, Obscurus Books).

Thus it is that goblins, from the past to the present, have had to struggle to find acceptance against laws specifically aiming to prevent it. After the end of the British civil war incited by the terrorist Tom Riddle the British Ministry of Magic has been forced to reconsider these laws - some of the oldest still standing in their jurisdiction. The first, as many know, has largely been struck from the record in magical Britain, the third has, over the years, been steadily eroded.

Yet, the laws remain - most notably the second. As Gorlog Goldentongue argued:  _ “What rights will we ever have while we are regarded as children? Our magic, powerful though it is, is deemed wild without the directing power of wands, our artefacts and enchantments but quaint craftsmanship for their pleasure and not the work of centuries to find magic and culture we can keep for ourselves. We are magical and so we are threats, we are small and so we are children - until we have wands, they will never consider us learned enough to be equals.” _

The history of the laws against goblinkind is long. The history of goblin inequality is yet longer. And though, in recent years, progress has been made against this in some small areas it does not prevent regression elsewhere.

A great muggle once said:  _ Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. _ Turn the page, dear reader, and do not be so forgetful yourself.

***

Brother to Hosvir Pearltooth, the current goblin liaison to the Ministry of Magic, Kleggi Pearltooth is a scholar of some renown even amongst wixes, having published several papers on goblin rights since 1999. He currently lives just off the London Goblin Market, in the goblin community of Minner Alley, with his wife and six children. Herschel Cobbold graduated from Hogwarts in 2011 and considers themself a proud Ravenclaw to this day. They live in a small muggle neighbourhood in the north of England with three kneazles and “an occasional and very irritating owl from Kleggi, demanding my edits”.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Did I spend several weeks on a research spiral looking at the messy history of goblins in folklore and their overlap with fairies, gnomes, etc.? Maybe. Did I frequently tab out while writing to double check the HP Wiki for canon? Definitely. Did I tab out even more to double check historical (and more recent) events to create magical parallels? _Maybe._
> 
> Lutins, kobolds, tomtenisse and kallikantzaroi are all goblin-like creatures (or in the case of kobolds just... exactly goblins) from various folklores. There are references to real history and real laws in this, specifically the French ban on head coverings, sometimes mentioned as the hijab ban. Gorlog Goldentongue is borrowed from [This](https://thepostmodernpottercompendium.tumblr.com/post/94285162614/it-is-a-well-known-fact-that-the-use-of-wandless) tumblr post because I have a deep and long-standing fondness for it.
> 
> Comments and constructive criticism very much appreciated.


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